Introducing Julien's Shop Now

Acquiring an Hermès handbag has never been straightforward. You don't simply walk into a boutique and leave with a Birkin. Supply is deliberately limited, allocation is controlled, and access tends to depend on a history with the brand. For most buyers, the waitlist is the default experience, and for the most sought-after sizes and leathers, the wait can stretch for years. The bag itself is rarely the obstacle. Getting to the bag is.

Over the past decade, those same bags have also become a recognized asset. Hermès holds the highest resale-value retention in luxury with roughly 138 percent of original value on the secondary market, according to Rebag, and the Birkin appreciating about 92 percent over the last ten years. One widely cited study found the Birkin gaining an average of 14.2 percent annually between 1980 and 2015, outpacing both the S&P 500 and gold over that period. Since 2021, over $150 million in Birkin and Kelly bags have been sold at auction, and in July 2025 Jane Birkin's original prototype sold in Paris for $10.1 million, the most ever paid for a handbag at auction. The bag is now widely treated as something to hold as much as to carry.

What hasn't changed is the friction. The waitlist remains the norm.

Julien's Shop Now is built to remove it. It's a new way to collect: a fixed-price format where you buy the item directly, with no auction and no waiting for a hammer. See something you want and own it.

For a house known for the auction, this is a deliberate addition rather than a replacement. For over 20 years, Julien's has always dealt in provenance and authentication, confirming what an object is and what it's worth. Shop Now applies that same expertise to a different format, trading the suspense of the saleroom for the certainty of a set price and immediate ownership.

The launch begins with a selection of authenticated Hermès handbags, offered in exclusive partnership with Luxus, the luxury alternative-asset manager. Luxus has done more than most to formalize Hermès handbags as an investment category. Founded by Dana Auslander, a former Blackstone managing director, the firm structures funds dedicated to Birkins and Kellys and supplies the secondary-market pricing data used in the Knight Frank Wealth Report, a primary reference for the private-wealth sector. Its role here is authentication and valuation — validating that each bag is genuine and accurately priced against the current market.

That matters because certainty, not just availability, is what usually separates a buyer from the bag. Luxus supplies the pricing rigor; Julien's supplies the curation and the authentication infrastructure. Together it makes a straightforward proposition possible: a real Hermès bag, verified and fairly priced, available to Shop Now.

A move like this also reflects where collecting is headed. The distinction between wanting an object and investing in one has narrowed considerably, and a handbag now sits in the same conversation as more conventional stores of value. Julien's Shop Now is a practical response to that shift, and for a category long defined by the wait, a more direct way in.